A slow first half for Cornell’s offense was saved by Wyatt Knust, who stood tall in goal on Saturday afternoon on Schoellkopf Field, helping the Big Red to a 14-8 victory over Brown by making a career-best 24 saves on .750 save percentage. With the win, Cornell improved to 7-3 (3-1 Ivy) while Brown fell to 1-9 (0-3 Ivy).
Freshman Ryan Goldstein led the Cornell attack with five points on a hat trick and two assists. Hugh Kelleher, CJ Kirst, Michael Long, and Spencer Wirtheim followed with three points apiece. Kelleher’s points all came off goals, while the other three each tallied two goals and an assist. Willem Firth notched a goal and an assist for two points. Alex Holmes rounded out multiple-point scorers with two assists. Marc Psyllos went 8-for-16 at the faceoff X. Petrakis aided in the effort, winning 6-of-10 pulls.
Brown only had three players tally more than one point. Aiden McLane and Ben Scandone each scored two goals, and Matteo Corsi put up one goal and one assist. Dash Sachs took all but one faceoff for the Bears, going 11-for-25. Netminder Connor Theriault posted 17 saves in the contest, his second-most of the season.
FIRST QUARTER
- Brown jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first 4:42 of the game and held Cornell to a blank until 4:51 remained in the first. Hugh Kelleher took a feed from Willem Firth to get on the boards.
- Cornell had just one more shot through the rest of the quarter, which didn’t connect, ending the quarter with a one-goal Big Red deficit.
SECOND QUARTER
- Cornell scored first to score in the second, knotting the game at two at the 11:20 mark, but the Bears responded with a 3-0 run to pull ahead, 5-3.
- After a shot clock violation on the Bears, Cornell advanced the ball quickly on the clear. A pass from short-stick defenseman Charlie Box found long-stick midfielder Brendan Staub for the sophomore’s second goal in as many games, cutting the deficit back to two.
THIRD QUARTER
- Brown was first on the boards in the third after the Big Red came up scoreless on two possessions. The Big Red had two answers, but again Brown took a two-goal lead with 8:57 remaining in the third.
- CJ Kirst got his first goal of the day less than two minutes later, sparking the Cornell offense. The Big Red scored five unanswered to close the quarter, including a goal from Ryan Goldstein at 3:28 which took the first Cornell lead of the day at 8-7.
FOURTH QUARTER
- The momentum stayed with the Big Red as Cornell posted four more goals unanswered allowing just four Brown offensive possessions in the first nine minutes of the quarter.
- Brown put one more goal away with 4:44 left on the clock, but the Big Red had already put the game out of reach, closing out a 14-8 victory.
BIG RED NOTABLES
- Wyatt Knust’s 24 saves mark the first 20+ save game since Chayse Ierlan made 21 at Yale last season. The 24 is two shy of the top 10 most single-game saves in Cornell history.
- Cornell’s 14-of-26 faceoff wins mark the fourth time this season that Cornell has won the faceoff battle, and just the second time in Ivy play.
- The six-goal margin of victory matches the largest margin Brown has given up this season.
- Michael Long’s goal-scoring streak moves to 27 consecutive games, the seventh longest in all of Division I.
UP NEXT
Cornell is back in action next weekend in a neutral site matchup against the nation’s current #1 team in Notre Dame. Action will go down at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium in Brookville, N.Y. on Sunday, April 14. Faceoff is set for 12:30 p.m. and the game will be streamed live via ESPN+.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].